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Reviews

Berlin,
on tour

Lenio Kaklea
Les Oiseaux

by Thomas Hahn

Anthropocentrism is a spiritual malady that leads to ecological disaster. No one wants it, yet no one knows how to prevent it. Dance, too, cannot stop it. Yet dance is wonderfully suited to challenging the dominance of industrialized homo erectus—without resorting to didactic heavy-handedness. Particularly striking images emerge when birds enter the picture. The French choreographer Luc Petton was once known for pieces featuring live birds and the empathy that arose from them.

In Lenio Kaklea’s Les Oiseaux—seen in 2025 at the Paris Festival d’Automne and now showing in Berlin and Dresden— there is no actual flying, yet authentic and poetic moments abound, especially within the intimacy of the solos, which verge on genuine behavioral studies.

Kaklea's feathered utopia draws inspiration from literary fables, specifically the satirical spirit of Aristophanes' The Birds and Monique Wittig's feminist essay Les Guérillères from 1969. Here, too, the Greek choreographer Kaklea is not the first; the fighting power of the Amazons is currently a central point of reference for socially engaged dance. Here, both come together, though the work rarely delves into armed conflicts, except perhaps in one moment when the flock of birds senses a potential threat and watches the audience intently. Otherwise, however, the feathered microcosm behaves mostly peacefully and almost Dionysian—in the spirit of the utopian communities found in the works of Wittig and Aristophanes. Added to this is the ancient playwright’s satirical wit: Kaklea lends her human-birds a carnivalesque vibrancy within a festive gathering—much as Aristophanes might have envisioned among the bird-gods. Yet she also stages shy creatures in an imaginary natural setting, accompanied by ornithological, documentary-style commentary on the behavior of her fantastical beings.

The fantastic costumes and expressive painted faces evoke a touch of carnival. And then, suddenly, a device hums through the air—a thing of cold, technological blackness. A drone! The intrusion of this gigantic, menacing insect—with its propellers and camera—into the peaceful, satirical joys playing out in the imaginary sky serves as a metaphor for the fragility of an idyll and a striking reflection of ourselves. Humorous and poetic, it speaks volumes.

Berlin, HAU2, 21–23 Aug.;
www.tanzimaugust.de

Dresden, Hellerau, 27–29 Aug.;
www.hellerau.org